Bike thieves target cycling mayor

Seattle's bicycling mayor has had some explaining to do - to his wife about why her bike got stolen after he borrowed it to ride to work.

Seattlepi.com said mayor Mike McGinn sent a message on Twitter about Peggy Lynch's wheels.

He said in a tweet: "I know I've been encouraging people to ride bikes more, but I didn't mean u could 'borrow' my wife's bike w/o asking."

Mr McGinn, a former Sierra Club leader, frequently commutes by bike and often rides to events and meetings. He is a strong advocate of making Seattle more friendly to cycles and pedestrians.

Mr McGinn's spokesman said the mayor borrowed his wife's bike because he recently donated his own to a charity. It was taken from a city garage.